JAMMU: Ghulam Nabi Azad led government had changed the policy that resulted in the denial of identification of the persons being protected in the state of J&K. This, the government would say, is being done for security reasons.

On Friday, the government revealed almost every possible detail about the group of Kashmiri separatists having a security cover. It offered details about the overall expenditure that was booked, the number of cops or SPOs, which are guarding them and in one case, interestingly, even the SPO was identified.

The entire information came in response to a simple cut motion by Pawan Gupta. “I move a cut of Rs 100 in demand No 02, in order to discuss the year wise / person wise details of security-related expenditure incurred on providing of guard/security/transport to separatists and Hurriyat leaders during last 10 years.”

In response came a five-page annexure. It suggested that the state government booked an expenditure of Rs 10.88 crore on providing security cover to various separatist leaders. Most of the expenditure is booked on the salaries and wages of their security detail and the fuel that the escort consumed.

The expenditure, the response said, made on the vehicles escorting them and protecting their residential houses, cost the government Rs 10.8875777 crore, so far.

From 2008 to 2017, the J& K Government spent Rs 103665824 crore on providing salaries to PSOs of various separatist leaders whereas Rs 4970805 was spent on fuel to vehicles escorting them, the reply said.

The government revealed that an amount of Rs 4,44,558 is being incurred as monthly salary to the guard personnel / PSOs attached with Aga Syed Hassan Mosavi.

The reply states that six SPOs are attached with the Prof Abdul Gani Bhat and amount of Rs 4,32,000 is being paid as the honorarium to these SPOs annually through Police Division Sopore.

The documents placed on record offer slightly confusing details too. There is no expenditure for the security of Fazl Haq Qureshi in the main document that listed the decade-long costs. However, in case of Yasin Malik, the same document puts the cost at Rs 2391.48.

The second annexure puts Nusrat ul Islam High School at Rajouri Kadal C/O Molvi Manzil in the protection list with a 1+3 guard.

However, the documents suggest that no vehicle from any district is attached with any APHC leaders.